Hong Kong

The first evening we went to a steak house called Dan Ryan's and had an American meal. It was in a big shopping center right on the bay. The beds were comfortable and the hotel in a great location. The second day we went to the Temple and had the meeting with Elder Perkins and then in the evening China Teacher's BYU treated us to dinner at the same steak house. On the third day we had our teacher's sharing meeting and then spent the afternoon and evening with the Linford's. On the 4th day we went to Church at another building where we held a conference with our China leadership from Beijing and Shanghi. We went back to the hotel which was just across the street from the arts center where we had attended the concert the night before. We had a sandwich at Starbuck's and then had about an hour to go through the Hong Kong Art museum before we boarded the buses back into mainland China.

The first picture is a view of HK as we were riding down the hill in the trolley. We next took a ferry ride around the bay. We were lucky enough to take the late afternoon ferry which was still going as it turned dark so we were able to see things light up on both sides.

The picture with the trees is the new chapel being built kitty corner from the Temple. It will house the Distribution center and other offices which will be so nice. The second picture is the Hong Kong Temple. We had a wonderful session there and then had an amazing meeting with lots of information about the Asian area shared by Elder Perkins, the Area Pres. for the Asia area. The basic message was that the Lord knows what He is doing with China and that things will happen in His own time and way. It was clear that things are happening in unusual and remarkable ways. The third picture is of the Church Office building where we held our meeting on a chapel there on the 29th.

We had the wonderful opportunity to meet Ray and JoAnn Linford who are serving on a Medical Mission in Hong Kong. They are friends of Char & Dave from Calif but she was a Val Norn with Aunt Elaine and dated Uncle Ira. She seems to know many of the Britsch family. We spent the afternoon and evening with them and had a marvelous time. We met in the Church Office building after our meeting and one of the first things we did was find a medical supply where Dr. Linford was able to adapt a thumb brace to fit my finger and we threw away the cast. Next
we took the trolly to the top of the mountain and went to Bubba Gump's for Clam Chowder and a salad ( what a refreshing change.) We walked down a path to an unmarked spot along the rocks where Elders McKay and Cannon scratched the date into a rock when they dedicated Hong Kong to missionary work.

The Linfords were able to get tickets for seats near them at one of the finest concerts I have heard in my lifetime. This guy was from Macedonia and was spectacular. The concert was Rachmaninov and every note was beautiful. The symphony was wonderful, itself and the
conductor and pianist truly complimented each other. We sat with three other missionary couples. One used to be a neighbor of Lanny's, one knew Todd and the third knows Beverly and Dave Fuirman, Dorth's sister. Such a small world in some ways.

Horse Show in China Folk Culture Village

We were told to meet at the horse show at a certain time and as we were walking toward it I saw this dude so started trying to talk with him. I asked him to take us to his show. He did, walked us in and told us where to sit then hooked up his microphone and was the MC for the program.

That evening we saw a colossal show with water , horses, dancer,singers, acrobats and the works.

Splendid China Park and China Folk Culture Village

We left the island after waiting in line for hours at an inadequate airport on the morning of the 27th and landed in Shezhen which is the gateway to Hong Kong. Many Chinese who work in Hong Kong live there because they can now go easily in and out and it is much cheaper on the China side. The average age here is 24 years old.

We visited the Splendid China Park and China Folk Culture Village in the afternoon and evening.
This is a small sample of the 24 life-sized ethnic minority villages found in the China Folk Culture Village. These parks were patterned after yhe PCC in Hawaii.



The SCP has miniature replicas of almost all of the famous visiting spots in China. Before people had money and the ability to travel this was a very famous spot. Now Chinese people are having the opportunity to see more of it in real life, ( A small number in reality.) These are pictures of some of the miniatures.

Coral Necklace

I bought a coral necklace from this little muslim lady that was selling jewelry along the boardwalk. She scratched it with scissors to show me that it was real but who knows. I'm pretty sure that it isn't plastic because it gets cold. I'll study up on it.

Seafood Dinner in Sanya

Some of us went with our travel agent for seafood in the "silver area" of Sanya. The place was a huge arena with hundreds of tables. It can probably seat thousands. In the back are rows of tanks with live fish in tubs. You select the ones that you want and then they are taken to
one of about 40 cook stations where it is cooked for you then brought to your table along with vegetable that you select and have cooked. Apparently it is full of drunken Chinese people all yelling an partying at night but we had a rather uneventful lunch hour. We had clams, razor clams, abalone, scallops, and shrimp with our veggies. Oh, I forgot-- we also had sea eggs or sea urchin filled with custard. I looked more than I ate most of the meal but what a fun experience.

Tianya-Haijiao Scenic Area

Tianya-Haijiao Scenic Area which is said to be the most romantic park in China. There is a spot there called the end of the earth where to parts of nature meet but neither Mike nor I could hear and understand. There is a picture of the area though.

Area Around the Hotel in Sanya

Scenes from the area around our hotel. There was an amusement park w/ bungee jump , lots or little stores with pick pockets handy (A team of girls came up to us and the one started speaking English while the other started to unzip my backpack. I heard her and turned around quickly and she tried to explain that I had left it unzipped and she was zipping it up.) It was a fun and beautiful area though.

Scenes from the Bus Window

Scenes from our bus window on our way back to the Russian section of Sanya to spend 2 nights by the beach.